America needs healing, not retaliation
This week, the United States got a preview of the future envisioned for it by some of the far-left Democrats now stepping to the pay window to collect their winnings.
Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez warned on Twitter that Trump supporters would try to delete posts, photos and writings to conceal their previous political allegiances. “Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future?” she wrote.
An entity called the “Trump Accountability Project” went further, threatening economic and professional retaliation against Trump supporters. The group posted this message on its website: “We should not allow the following groups of people to profit from their experience: Those who elected him. Those who staffed his government. Those who funded him.”
Former Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan called for revenge against Trump supporters on Twitter, writing, “Employers considering them should know there are consequences for hiring anyone who helped Trump attack American values.”
Former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich called for a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” that would “name every official, politician, executive, and media mogul whose greed and cowardice enabled this catastrophe.”
The thirst for the blood of Trump supporters isn’t limited to Democrats.
A never-Trump group of Republicans, The Lincoln Project, has vowed to destroy law firms that dare to represent President Trump. The group announced on Twitter Tuesday that it was launching an advertising campaign against the law firms Jones Day and Porter Wright Morris & Arthur. The group even urged “doxxing” of firm employees.
As Rep. Justin Amash, L-Michigan, put it, “This is a horrible idea. No matter what you think of Donald Trump or the GOP, nobody should target lawyers for representing clients. Our justice system depends on access to legal representation, even for those who may seem undeserving.”
This ad-hoc reign of terror is absolutely unacceptable in a free country.
All Americans, even the president, have rights under the law. Lawsuits making meritless claims will be dismissed in the courts. It is a kind of nonviolent terrorism to seek to use a campaign of economic and social pressure on law firms in order to deprive any American of the ability to pursue legal claims.
Particularly concerning is the effort to demonize and destroy “those who elected” President Trump and “those who funded” the Trump campaign. More than 70 million American citizens voted for Donald Trump for president in this election. Will they be identified by their party registration? Will their employers face attacks on Twitter and demands for their firing? Will party registration become a dangerous activity that could destroy a career or a family’s economic security?
Under U.S. campaign finance laws, the names, addresses and employers of political donors are public. The threat to retaliate against “those who funded” the
Trump campaign is enablfed by campaign finance disclosure requirements. California also makes public the identity and employer of political donors to state and local campaigns.
The obvious reaction that any risk-averse person would have to these threats is to desist from all political activity or advocacy. Doxxing individuals and boycotting companies over political disagreement is coercion, not persuasion.
And it’s certainly an unhelpful way to claim to aid a new administration calling for unity.
All Americans, even the president, have rights under the law. Lawsuits making meritless claims will be dismissed in the courts. It is a kind of nonviolent terrorism to seek to use a campaign of economic and social pressure on law firms in order to deprive any American of the ability to pursue legal claims.